In March 2016, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that Singapore-based Hyflux had received a letter of intent covering an EPC contract in the Suez Canal Economic Zone. The project at Ain Sokhna, worth about US$500 million, combined a 150,000 m³/day desalination plant with a 457 MW gas-fired power station that would run the plant and sell surplus power to the grid. A 25-year operation and maintenance contract was included. It was the first integrated water and power scheme Hyflux had won outside Singapore.
The report reflected a pattern of the time: pairing desalination with power generation on one site and awarding construction and long-term operation to a single provider.